we passed the plumbing, mechanical, and electrical inspections. all the low voltage wiring for security, automation, firealarm, and data has been installed. because we are using spray foam insulation, we have been trying to make sure everything that needs to be installed inside the walls has been accomplished so that we wont have to fight with the foam to add things later. the second stair case is mostly finished and we have one of the 3 air handlers installed in the mechanical room.

we have been fumbling thru getting the framing inspection approved. the framing inspection is susposed to be approved before we are allowed to insulate...... however because of the level of complication on this project, several items that need to be addressed for proper fire blocking/caulking have to be postponed till after the insulation is installed so that we dont cover up cavities that need to be insulated. we also have almost a full page of structural related comments from the town of cary to be addressed by the structural engineer in the form of a sealed letter. so, to make along story short, we have the framing inspection partially passed so that we can start insulating, but we will need to have the framing reviewed again before its passed.

after getting multiple prices/quotes on foam insulation, i was really discouraged and was seriously considering using fiberglass. we were running out of time to make a decision, when insulating incorporated, one of the companies that provided us a quote, called back with a better price. it was still more money that i had budgeted for insulation, and more money than i wanted to spend but i feel it will pay for itself over the next few years. the foam installation is extremely interesting. hard to believe how much expansion occurs in less than 30 seconds. the sealing properties of the foam make it an excellent choice to make an air tight envelope. this decision may require us to have a form of mechanical ventilation because there is significantly less air escaping threw the walls. ill deal with that later tho..... for now im just focusing on getting prepared for the insulation, and framing inspections.

you can see in the photos how much prep work is involved. almost everything has to be covered in plastic. all the windows and doors have to be sealed with low expansion foam, and the base plates on all the walls are caulked where they meet the floor. the foam has an extremely high expansion, and is harmful to breathe..... you can tell they take it serious by the way they wear a full tyvec suit, and positive displacement respirator.

lots going on since my last update...... so ill break it into a few different posts.

we got the bathtubs installed and the drains connected, and we built half walls to hold the larger tub. did a sketch so that we knew how we wanted the bathroom to look, and how far up the wall the tile goes. big thanks to buenas dad alex, for helping with the shower valves! (still owe him a beer)

i finally committed to a hotwater system design..... been going back and forth on this quite a bit. i ended up with (2) medium sized waterheaters. one in the basement mechanical room and a second one in the upstairs mechanical room. there are 3 different pex manifolds that T into a 3/4" hot water circulation loop via circ pump controlled by the automation panel. the really nice thing about this system is that you can use all the hot water from both tanks from any single location as well as the additional volume that the loop it self adds to the system. the loop design also allows for easy addition of a future solar hot water heat exchanger.

we hung a 28 gallon unit in the large basement mechanical room via threaded rod and unistrut. the circ pump will be mounted right beside it on the small platform. we pipied over to it with 3/4" conduit for power connection. the entire loop was insulated with slip on foam wrap, and we additionally foam sealed everywhere it pased thru a floor or top plate (anywhere the insulation stopped) with low expansion foam.

ordered up 295 pieces of 12' long sheetrock!
had to place a bunch of sheets on each floor so the delivery guys took some in the basement doors, and then used 2 different windows to pass sheets thru. this keeps the hangers from toting sheetrock all over the house if its already pretty close to where its being hung.

the hanging crew made short work of the 295 sheets. they were done in 3 days. the finishing crew also knocked it out very quickly. the paint crew is about halfway done. the finishers just did the "point up" and the painters should be back in a day to finish the paint. the drop downs look very nice now that there is sheetrock on them. the atrium area looks crazy.... reminds me of a mall or an office building downtown.

today was awesome..... the painters are hard at work finishing up the kitchen (cabinets are being delivered tomorrow) me and dad are working like mad on the HVAC ductwork, (some of this ductwork is so tight its a miracle it will fit) and the garage doors are being installed. we went ahead and connected the feeder to the sub equipment panel so that the garage door operators would have power.

the last few days have been all about cabinets. for 2 days straight iv been assembling cabinets, and im still not finished since a few pieces got damaged in shipping. probably get replacement pieces next week.

sometimes things dont go your way, and sometimes you learn important things a little too late..... for example the slate is falling off my wall because we used the wrong mortar for the stone type. this problem should be fixed in just a couple days, but it sucks to have to take it down and re-attach it.

we are finally breaking out the wood that came from the trees we removed to build the house. its been drying for 11 months and we are starting the long process of turning it into trim boards. its amazing what a planer can do to a rough looking piece of lumber.

we got all the bathroom, bar, and laundry room cabinets mounted/leveled on saturday, and then started working on the kitchen on sunday. the kitchen is going REALLY slow because of all the custom fit crap we have to deal with. wait till you see this refrigerator. lol

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Baidu [Spider] and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum